February 18 movie: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This movie is a conundrum. The plot is repulsive: first, a mountain man tricks Jane Powell into marrying him, not telling her that he lives with six brothers and he really wants a free laborer to cook and clean for the seven of them. She teaches the six bachelor brothers how to court the ladies in town, which they do with partial success, then they get tired of trying to win girls the old fashioned way and kidnap the objections of their affections. Turns out the girls liked being assaulted and literally dragged from their homes, and like being trapped up in the mountains even more. When spring rolls around they marry their kidnappers as soon as the pass is clear and they can get a pastor up there. The End!
With such a hateful story, why is this movie so charming? Beats the heck out of me. To be honest I enjoyed it in spite of myself.
5 Comments
I just remember the axe dancing, the fact that they shot the movie twice for different screen ratios, and that "Here Come The Brides," the TV show that sent Bobby Sherman to fame for a while, was most likely based on it.
I just remember the axe dancing, the fact that they shot the movie twice for different screen ratios, and that "Here Come The Brides," the TV show that sent Bobby Sherman to fame for a while, was most likely based on it.
I didn't submit twice. I got "INTERNAL SERVER ERROR" and hit "reload" to see if it had posted once. Won't do that again!
I didn't know they had shot the movie twice in different aspects. TCM showed a letterboxed very wide-aspect version.
The axe dancing was great. There was also some gymnastic dancing on boards -- in which the brothers dance/fight with the buys from town -- that reminded me of "Gymkata." But in a way that somehow made the movie even more charming.
Yes, it's a freaky conundrum. A fine place to use "and" instead of "but" with the commentary.
Heinous and I like the music and dancing. And some of the acting. And the freaky color of its recording medium.